This invention relates to diagnostic NMR imaging.
The utility of nuclear magnetic resonance ("NMR") imaging in diagnostic medicine has recently been improved by the development of pharmaceutical NMR contrast agents which change the relaxation times of water protons in the vicinity of the agent. A pharmaceutical NMR contrast agent is selected to bind to a component of a body tissue under study, thereby increasing the relaxivity of water protons in the vicinity of the tissue to which the agent is bound. In this way the NMR signal from the tissues of interest is enhanced relative to the surrounding tissues.